nintendo

Once inspired by the mouse, Nintendo is now taking Mario and its iconic characters to Universal Parks & Resorts. Today Nintendo and Universal Parks & Resorts announced they have partnered to create “spectacular, dedicated experiences based on Nintendo’s wildly popular games, characters and worlds.” No specifics on what kind of Nintendo game worlds you will be warped into, but you can only imagine the possibilities with the colorful, pipe-laden worlds of Super Mario or the fantasy lands and characters of Zelda.

From the announcement:
“The immersive experiences will include major attractions at Universal’s theme parks and will feature Nintendo’s most famous characters and games. More details will be announced in the future, as the Nintendo and Universal creative teams work to create specific concepts.”

Keep a lookout for more details from Nintendo and keep dreaming, Kirby!

Nintendo wasn’t fooling around yesterday with the announcement of all their upcoming games and amiibo for its Wii U and 3DS. Interestingly, Nintendo found itself back to its days of hanafuda playing cards with the announcement of the Animal Crossing amiibo cards. And if there weren’t enough forms of amiibo, they will be available in a special plush form as well.

New amiibo Cards debut with the release of Animal Crossing character cards coming this fall, playable with the Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer game. If you own an older 3DS or 2DS, Nintendo will release a standalone NFC reader/writer peripheral.

The hunt for more amiibo figures will continue with the impending release of additional characters starting in May. On May 29, new Super Smash Bros. amiibo will include Charizard, PAC-MAN, Wario, Jigglypuff, Greninja, Robin, Lucina and Ness. Splatoon amiibo will be available with the release of Splatoon for Wii U on May 29 as well. Three new amiibo include Inkling Girl, Inkling Boy and Inkling Squid. Then in July, Dark Pit and Palutena will be released. Further on in September, Zero Suit Samus, Ganondorf, Olimar, Dr. Mario and Bowser Jr. will debut. Pick, choose and pre-order if you can! Put amiibo to use in the upcoming amiibo tap: Nintendo’s Greatest Bits to unlock NES and SNES games on the Wii U. More amiibo abilities will be put to use with Mii Racing Suits in Mario Kart 8 when a new update is released on April 29th. To find out which amiibo work with which games, check out the amiibo compatibility chart lineup here on Nintendo.com.

Besides the amiibo cards and character figures, there is yet another manifestation of amiibo – plushies. In fall, Nintendo will release Yoshi amiibo yarn plushies along with Yoshi’s Woolly World for the Wii U. Yoshi yarn plush amiibo will be available in three colors: green, pink and light blue.

So now that you’ve been overwhelmed with all of Nintendo’s amiibo plans, let’s get to the games. Here’s a breakdown of what is planned for the Wii U and 3DS in the coming year:

Wii U announcements:

N64 and NDS games available on Virtual Console Service: Yoshi’s Island DS for Nintendo DS and Super Mario 64 for Nintendo 64 are now available. Upcoming releases include WarioWare: Touched! (NDS) on April 9 and Donkey Kong 64 (N64) on April 16.

Don’t Starve: Giant Editionfrom Klei Entertainment available in May for Wii U.

Octodad: Dadliest Catchfrom Young Horses, Inc. available this summer for Wii U.

And finally, in Super Smash Bros. news, Mewtwo DLC arrives on April 28. Club Nintendo participants can get Mewtwo on April 15 if the game has been previously registered. On April 15, Super Smash Bros. players can buy costumes for their Mii fighters which include Mega Man X and Proto Man from the Mega Man game series. Later in June, Lucas from Mother 3 arrives. Want more characters? Nintendo is listening! Go to www.smashbros.com to participate in the Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot. to vote on what character to add to Super Smash Bros.

Plenty of Nintendo related games and accessories to experience in the year to come!

K’NEX is hosting a giveaway contest this week that Mario fans should not miss. Today through July 15, 2011, visit www.knex.com/mariogoldenticket for a chance at getting a free K’NEX Mario Kart figure. K’NEX is giving away 10,000 of their Mario Kart figures (Mario and Luigi)! Check the website for the exact time to show up, as only 300 figures will be given out each day. If you’re lucky enough to sign up for your Mario Kart figure, you may just be lucky enough to get a Golden Ticket inside your Mario Kart figure package. Five of the mailed Mario Kart figures will include the K’NEX Mario Kart Grand Prize Golden Tickets.

Five Grand Prizes include:

A Nintendo Wii

The ENTIRE K’NEX Mario Kart Wii Building Set Product Line ($600+ Value!)

A TRIP for 3 to K’NEX Headquarters

Head on over to www.knex.com/mariogoldenticket for all the rules and to enter. Nintendo fans, don’t miss out on this sweet contest and free giveaway from K’NEX. Good luck!

Nintendo’s iconic video game character, Mario, celebrates his 25 year run through Super Mario games. From the 1985 debut of Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System to the 2010 release of Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the Wii, watch a fun retrospective gameplay video here of Nintendo’s Super Mario games.

Here’s a message from Nintendo on Super Mario’s 25th Anniversary:

“Twenty-five years ago today, Nintendo’s original Super Mario Bros.™ video game made its debut in Japan and changed the world of video games forever. Since then, Mario™ has become one of the most renowned and beloved video game characters around the globe.

Mario is all but synonymous with Nintendo. It’s difficult to think of one without thinking of the other. Super Mario Bros. contains a magical blend of characters, graphics, challenges, music and action that still captivates players today. The original game sold 40.24 million units worldwide, and remains one of the best-known, best-loved video games in the world. It popularized the side-scrolling format and established elements of the Mushroom Kingdom that are still used in today’s Mario games. Super Mario Bros. frequently appears on lists of the best games of all time.

“Stimulated by advancements in technologies, we have always enjoyed developing the Super Mario Bros. series,” said Nintendo designer and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. “The Super Mario Bros. series has always taken advantage of the latest technologies and is the fruit of the creativity of a number of my hard-working friends working as a team.””

While at the Nintendo booth at PAX there were crazy lines for both Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Metroid: Other M and DonkeyKong Country: Returns, but one game that was not getting as much buzz was Fluidity. The game physics based puzzler where you have to tilt the world using the Wii Remote. Your puddle of water moves through the world through tubes in the ground, passing through doors and values that are triggered via switches. As you make your way through the level and pass through certain areas, you may lose a few drops of your collective liquid. This is where the challenge and replayablility come into effect.

Playing through the two levels of the demo did not take very long because of the natural feel of the controls. Just using the Wii Remote seems like the only way to play this game. Even though I was playing some early levels I was able to quickly make it through them. This was not for the lack of challenge but more a testament to the precision of the controls.

As for graphics, Fluidity has a cartoony art style. The movements and animations are very realistic though, even if the premise is ridiculous. What was very funny to me were the ends of each level. Basically, your puddle of fluid spews out of the ground at a random spot in the world. It seemed a bit out of place, but very fitting to the art style of Fluidity.

Nintendo has always had a knack for discovering and publishing unique titles for its WiiWare downloadable service. Fluidity is both unique and fun. Coming to WiiWare sometime this winter for 1000 Nintendo Wii points, Fluidity looks very solid and was totally fun to play. Keep your eyes on the site on Mondays for the Nintendo downloadable summary and maybe even a review when the game is released.